`A sense of wonder and delight`

LAHORE, March 9: The five-day third annual Lahore International Children’s Film Festival 2011 concluded on Wednesday amid huge response.

Around 8,000 children enjoyed the festival which showcased 83 films from 26 countries. The film festival had two venues — Ali Auditorium, Ferozepur Road, and PAF Cinema, Lahore Cantonment – which remained jam-packed.

The Little Art, a not-for-profit organization, held the festival to bring alternative learning opportunities to children and young people in Pakistan.

Shoaib Iqbal, the moving spirit behind the activity, told Dawn that after the success of the previous festival in 2009, it was a challenge to present a programme that could meet the expectations of the audience. He said the response was a huge one and the festival went extremely well.

Of the 400 films from around the world, the management selected some of the best for education and entertainment. He said thousands of children visited the festival from schools, child-protection organizations and other institutions.

He said: “The film fare is becoming synonymous with a sense of wonder and delight, of cultivating the young hearts and minds destined to become our future leaders.” It was a touring festival as well. Later in the month it would visit various cities of Punjab and schools, he said.

In summers, Little Art holds a series of filmmaking workshops with children and young people to learn and make short films.

On the concluding day of the festival, the Ali Institute of Education was shimmering with illuminations. There were stalls by various sponsors. Among the films screened on Wednesday were The Earth Game (Hong Kong), The Tiny Fish (Russian Federation), The Postman (Australia), A Tree and Flower (USA) and Me and My Monster (Switzerland).

Children also had great interest in animation films along with films on wildlife, environment, sports and Nature.

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We use the arts, primarily media, to teach children and young adults to recognize and begin to understand the social issues pervading their immediate community; social issues that prohibit the development of their dreams, ideas and principles.
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